Reclusive songwriter from Cleethorpes who penned Thriller

Rod Temperton 1949-2016

When Michael Jackson died in 2009, a mirror at his home was found covered in Post-it notes bearing uplifting messages. Among them was one that simply said, “Call Temperton.” There followed a rush among journalists to track down the author of some of Jackson’s biggest-selling songs, including the international smash hit Thriller. Yet he wasn’t easy to find, said The Times. Rod Temperton, who has died of cancer aged 66, was a reclusive type who told his publishers not to reveal his personal information. The one time he made an exception was when he agreed to be interviewed for a radio documentary in 2006. Suitably enough, it aired under the title The Invisible Man. Afterwards, he retreated into obscurity, safe in the knowledge that few people “really knew the enigmatic Rod Temperton – even though the whole world knew his songs”.

Temperton traced his love of music back to his childhood growing up in the seaside town of Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire. His father, who ran a garage, used to place the radio by the young Rodney’s pillow, and he would fall asleep listening to Radio Luxembourg. Encouraged by his music teacher at school, he learnt to play the drums and keyboard. There followed a stint working in a fish factory, until, in 1974, he answered an advertisement in the music magazine Melody Maker and joined a touring American band named Heatwave as keyboard player. Temperton provided them with their biggest hit, Boogie Nights, just one of a string of his compositions to enter the Top 40. After quitting the band, he penned songs for the likes of Donna Summer, Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan.

Yet it’s the songs he wrote for Jackson that he’ll be remembered for, said The Daily Telegraph. Recruited by the producer Quincy Jones, he penned Off the Wall and Rock with You for the “King of Pop” – along with the exuberant Thriller, which, with the help of a 14-minute video by John Landis, became the biggest-selling single ever recorded by an African-american artist. Other notable achievements in his career included an Oscar nomination for his music for the film The Color Purple in 1985. The secret to songwriting, he said once, was to please yourself first. It’s only when you “feel the hairs stand up on the back of your hand” that you’re ready to go public. Yet as time went by, Temperton made so much money from royalties that he put his feet up, said The Times. He divided his latter years between homes in Kent, France, Los Angeles and Fiji, which he shared with his wife, Kathy.